Sheet of folded material



July 11 1924. 1,499,926

.J. 0, HUNT SHEET OF FOLDED MATERIAL Filed Sept. 14 1923 INVENTOR Patented July l, 1924.

STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN 0. HUNT, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR. BY MEsNE ASSIGNMENTS, To

INDEPENDENT PAPER MILLS INC.

, A CORPORATION OF EW YDR-K.

SHEET OF FOLDED MATERIAL.

Application filed September 14. 1923. Serial No. 662,615.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN O. HUNT, a citizen of the United States, residing in the borough of Brooklyn, county of Kings,

city and State of New York, have invented an Improvement in Sheets of Folded Material, of which the following is aspecification. Y

This invention relates to sheets of folded 1 material and more particularly to sheets of paper or similar substances adapted for use as napkins, towels and other like articles which may be arranged in superimposed piles or otherwise to be dispensed from a suitable container. Heretofore sheets of paper and similar material for like purposes have been folded in various manners. In some instances, for example, paper sheets have been folded into strips and placed in piles with alternate' strips in transverse or crosswise positions in order to be taken one at a time from a dispensing apparatus. Sheets of paper and similar material have also been folded in such a manner. that the successive sheets in a pile thereof are adapted to be interlapped in order that when placed in a receptacle one section of an outermost sheet may be caused to extend through an opening in the'receptacle and when the outermost sheet is withdrawn from the receptacle through the opening therein the sheet as withdrawn automatically carries with it a part of the next succeeding sheet or article so that one sheet or article at a time is obtained from the dispensingdevice. Iam furthermore aware that it has been proposed to fold sheets of paper or similar material for napkins, towels or other like articles in such amanner that when arranged in a superimposed pile and placed in a dispensing container each sheet as taken therefrom tends to unfold itself so that when removed from the dis pensing device it is in condition for use without requiring any effort in unfolding or otherwise preparing the article for its intended purpose after being taken from the receptacle. I am aware that hereto.- fore a sheet of paper or similar material to be used as a napkin, towel or'like article folded along substantially parallel lines and preferably in opposite directions so as to provide a plurality of centrally disposed coextensive sections and an end section of less extent than the other sections, which end section when the article is in position to be taken by the user is outermost so that the edge thereof is" readily available and may be grasped to withdraw the article from the dispenser or other receptacle which act automatically causes the article to unfold so that it will be ready foruse.

In sheets of material folded in the manner in which reference has just been made but one' edge of the short-section of the sheet is available for being grasped by the user and consequently the articles must all be taken from the same side and in precisely the same manner. This oftentimes is inconvenient dueto' the fact that the articles may be so placed thatrit is diflicult to obtain them from .the side in which they must be taken. For example, the articles may be so placed that they can be readily taken by the right hand only, whereas in some instances it might be more convenient for the user to take the article with his left hand. The object of my present invention is to overcome this and other possible difficulties in the use of the sheet of material as folded as shown and described in the copending application aforesaid. In doing so the sheet of material folded in accordance with this invention is provided with a plurality of substantially coextensive sections and an outer section which is made in a plurality of folds, all of the folds of the outer sections being non-coextensive with the other sections and preferably noncoextensive with themselves so that there are a plurality of edges in this outermost non-coextensive section from either one or all of which the napkin or other article may be grasped to be taken for use and in so doing will substantially unfold itself, as will be hereinafter more particularly do,- scribed.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 isa plan of a blank of material folded in accordance with this invention to form a napkin, towel or similar article.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the article as folded.

Fig. 3 represents a superimposed pile of the folded articles suitably tied into a bundle.

I the sections 23 to 28 inclusive are coexten- Fig. 4 illustrates the manner in which the article opens automatically when taken for use, and

Fig. 5 is a perspective View similar to F ig. 2 illustrating a modified form of the invention.

Referring to the drawing the sheet of paper to be folded into a napkin,'towel or similar article is illustrated in Fig. 1 and as shown therein is folded along continuous lines 10 and 11, 12 and 13, l iand 15, 16 and 17 and along a transverse line 18 to provide sections 19 and 20, 21 and 22, 23- and 24, 25 and 26, 27 and 28. In fold ing. the sheet the fold made on the lines 10 and 11 is in one direction, that made along the lines 12 and 13 is in the opposite direction, while the fold on the lines 14 and 15 is in the same direction as the fold on the line 10 and 11, and the fold along the lines 16 and 17 is in the same direction as the fold on the lines 11 and 12. With the sheet thus folded there is provided a rectangular strip of material which is then folded on itself along the line 18 to produce the article as shown in Fig. 2. In thus folding the sheet' it will be apparent that sive and overlapping, while the sections 21 and 22 are non-coextensive with the other sections and the sections 19 and 20 are of even lesser extent than the sections 21 and 22. The sections 19 and 20, 21 and 22 when folded as illustrated provide an outermost section in each article which may be grasped along the fold line 10 which is the edge of the section 21 or along the longitudinal edge 29 of the section 19 or by both these edges simultaneously when more convenient than to grasp the article along one or the otheredge. It will be understood that the edge 80 of the section 20 and the fold line 11 which in the article is the edge of the section 22 correspond respectively with theedges 29 and 10, but in the folded article as viewed in Fig. 2 are ,on the underside thereof.

These articles as folded may be placed ina superimposed pile as-indicated M31 and secured together by a tape 32 so as to form a bundle which may be placed in any suitable dispensing container from which the articles may be. taken one at a time as hereinbefore described and which as taken from the dispenser automatically unfold themselves in the manner illustrated vin Fig. 4 by the simple operation of being removed from the dispenser.

As shown in Fig. 5 the free edge of the relatively small outermost section may be turned in as illustrated at 33 to provide .a double folded edge, and it will also be understood that the article folded in accordance with my invention may have three or more non-coextensive sections rather than two such sections as herein described without departing from the nature and spirit of the invention.

I claim as my invention:

1. A sheet of material folded into a plurality of substantially coextensive sections, and an outermost section fo ded on itself into a plurality of parts each of which is non-coextensive with the said sections.

2. A sheet of material folded into a plurality of substantially coextensive sections, and an end section having a plurality of parts none of which are coextensive with each other and all of which are non-coexten sive with the said sections.

3. A sheet of material folded into a plu rality of coextensive intermediate sections, and end sections, each of which are formed of a pluralityof parts none of which are coextensive with the other and all of which are non-coextensive with the said sections.

4. A sheet of material folded into a plurality of substantially coextensive rectangular sections, and a rectangular section folded on itself into a plurality of parts all of which are non-coextensive with the said sections.

5. A sheet of material folded into a plurality of substantially coextensive rectangular intermediate sections, and an end section folded on itself into a plurality of parts all of which are non-coextensive with the said sections.

6. A sheet of material folded into a plurality of substantially coextensive rectangular intermediate sections, and end sections having a plurality of parts all of which are also rectangular and non-coextensive with eachother and with the said sections.

7. A sheet of material folded into a plurality of substantially coextensive sections, and an end section having a plurality of parts all non-coextensive with the other sections, the'said sheet being then folded transversely to cause the non-coextensive end section to lie at the top and the bottom thereof.

8. A sheet of material folded into a plurality of substantially rectangular coextensive sections, and an end section having a plurality of parts which are non-coextensive with each other and no one of which is coextensive with the said sections, the said sheet being then folded transversely to cause the said end section to lie at the top and bottom thereof whereby the edge of one or more of the said parts of the noncoextensive end section may be grasped to take the folded sheet which will automatically unfold itself when being so taken.

Signed by me this 11th day of September, 1923;

JOHN o. HUNT. 

